


Brothers (of the sworn and eternal variety)

by nutellabythespoon



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: That's basically what it's about, because hello there is that whole sworn brothers but then gets real brother sitch, friendship between the bros, in year ten, it's all about friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 06:10:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3279683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutellabythespoon/pseuds/nutellabythespoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Beatrice goes back to Wellington in the autumn of year ten, Pedro has some John issues, Ben has some Beatrice issues, they are friends, olives get eaten and eye rolls are exchanged.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers (of the sworn and eternal variety)

**Author's Note:**

> I know someone ficced the olive dare scene before, and I made a point of not reading it so it wouldn't inspire me for this. Any similarities are therefore purely coincidental. (sorry if there are any) (and I may want to continue, idk I liked writing this a lot, I've been writing it for like two months now.) (also I didn't chapter so it's one long thingy)

Year Eight (Prologue)

“You’re going back to England, again? You were just there _last_ summer!”

“Ya, it turns out annual family holidays are kinda, well, annual.” The two boys were walking home from their final day of year eight, talking about their plans for the upcoming summer. “And, anyways, it’s not like it can bother you so much, you’ll probably be spending the summer with that same _girl_ again.”

Pedro considered this, but wasn’t entirely convinced that his friend needed to spend the _whole_ summer on the other side of the world. They kept walking, daring each other to jump and grab the highest leaves they could from the trees. When they finally got to their destination, they grabbed a handful of cookies from the cookie jar and then went to start up a video game.

“About that girl though, are you actually happy to be seeing her again? You smiled when I mentioned her before.” Ben asked this with a confused expression, and then a sudden, horrible, terrible thought entered his brain. He gasped. “You, don’t, _like_ like her do you? Oh no oh no pleeeeasse tell me no, that is unacceptable girls are gross and you know that.”

His friend made a face liken to a hurt baby deer, but quickly wiped it away and chuckled. “No, no of course not she’s just my friend. What? Oh?” He had had a little realization of his own. “Are you jealous? Do you think I’ll never let you come and play my video games or something if I start liking _girls?”_ He poked Ben in the shoulder, which caused them both to slip up in the game. “No need to worry, you’re like my brother.”

“Very true, very true my friend. It’s a good thing too, seeing as neither of us actually have any siblings. And, hey, I never said I was jealous! I’m just concerned for your well being.”

“You know what would be fun?” He checked around the house to see if his parents were home. Apparently, they were not. “If, before you leave for England, like today I guess since you’re leaving at the end of the week, we can do something to prove our sworn brotherhood.”

“Like a pact? Or a dare? A really good dare? I’ve got lots of really good dares!” He started grinning and sliding his hands together. “What’s the most embarrassing thing for you to do?” he asked, mostly to himself.

“No, not a dare!” Pedro had gone full on take-charge mode, he was clearly excited. “What’s the only difference between real brothers and sworn brothers?”

“Parents? DNA”

“Well, yeah, blood! It’s all that’s standing in our way.”

“We can’t change our blood, Pedro.”

“But we can officially swear our brotherhood, in a _blood oath_.”

Ben was into the idea immediately. “How would we go about that, exactly? We just swap a bit of blood?  Connected forever, we’ll be like the soldiers who agree to stay by each other and defend each other and stuff!” The idea was _totally awesome._  Ben wasn’t scared about them stopping being friends, but how _cool_ was a blood oath? He couldn’t get over it. “For the oath part, we’ll need to write some sort of script, like a list of conditions to promise. I’ll write it, we both know I have superior writing skills.”

“Debatable as always.”

“Rude, as always!”

“Fine, you can write it, if you want.”

Ben grabbed a pen and notebook out of his backpack. He started jotting down ideas. “We have to swear to tell each other everything important and never stop being friends. That’s the main point, ya?”

Pedro had walked into the kitchen to get a safety pin. “We should probably go to the washroom, so we don’t like, stain anything.”

“Ah, Pedro, you’re a genius. Safety pins make is safe. Good thinking.”

“I’m not exactly sure that’s how it works.”

“I’m not the one holding the safety pin.”

“Did you finish the ‘script’ ?”

Ben held out the ripped notebook paper in response as they walked to the washroom. “It’s a masterpiece.”

“I bet.” Pedro held out the pin awkwardly. “So, we’ll do it like a pinky swear? So we can exchange blood?” He nipped the top of the inside of his finger, and a tiny bubble of blood appeared. “OK, you’re turn.” He held out the pin with his other hand, and then stuck out his pinky.

Ben grabbed the pin and started to recite the oath. “This is my oath to Peter Pedro Donaldson, to never keep secrets and always help him in his many times of need. Many times. Even when I’m gone back to England for the summer. And when we start high school next year. Even then.” He had been paying more attention to reciting the carefully written lines and then the pin though, and suddenly he felt a searing pain from his finger. “Ow, fuck!”

“What, Ben, how hard is it to prick your pinky? Are you ok?”

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.”

Pedro looked down.  There was a large slash through Ben’s finger and a bit of skin was hanging off. “How could you have possibly managed that?” Pedro opened the cupboard to get he alcohol and a bandaid in a caring, responsible gesture, but he couldn’t hide his laughter.  

Ben refused to Bandaid, sticking out his pinky and making a serious face. “Recite. The. Oath.”

Pedro looked down at the messy scribbling on the paper, which was partly covered with drops of blood. “This is my Oath to Ben the Dick Hobbes-”

“Hey, that’s _not_ what is says!”

Pedro continued. “…to always let him be the cooler friend and never miss an opportunity to let everyone know how cool he is-” He paused, giving Ben the side eye. “Why would I agree to this.”

“Because you’re now my sworn brother and I promised to always be there for you! You have to!”

“You’re basing you’re argument off the thing hasn’t happened yet! Ben!” To most onlookers, he would have looked genuinely annoyed, but this was a multi-daily type of exchange between the two of them. Nothing ever _really_ got between them. He saw Ben’s pained face and chuckled. “Ok, for you’re finger that we should probably do something about. How cool he is, and most importantly act like true brothers forever.” He smiled and stuck his pinky in the general vicinity of Ben’s health hazard. “We should clean that.”

Ben finished putting on the bandaid and Pedro grabbed the “script” off the counter. “I’m keeping this for posterity.” They took it to his room, and then went back to go finish their video game.

“This is so cool. Now the word  ‘bro’ is actually applicable.”

“Well, to be fair, we didn’t actually swap blood.”

“Ah, it doesn’t matter.” They were in a state pure excitement. Summer was starting the next day, and then they were going to high school. It all felt very big and neither could exactly put their finger on it, but they suddenly felt closer, and more prepared.

When Ben left to do home for dinner, they said their goodbyes for the season. “Bye, hope you have fun in England. Don’t stay there forever! Get wifi so we can email or something.”

“Don’t have too much fun! And make sure no one forgets about me! And no practicing whatever new game your dad brings back for you! You’re not allowed to be better than me!” Ben ran off down the street and Pedro closed the door, looking fondly at the teeny prick on his finger.

Year Ten

Summer was coming to a close, and things were starting to get back to normal, something Benedick Hobbes was in a great appreciation for. Beatrice Duke had gone back to Wellington, taking with her all the complications and confusions of how the summer had ended. It was the day before the first day of school, and Ben wanted to relish in the now easy to understand, simple life that awaited him.

He knocked on Pedro’s door, and tapped his fingers on his shorts as he waited. He had missed Pedro throughout the summer. It wasn’t that they weren’t hanging out, it was just that they weren't  _hanging out._ Even if Pedro was there, to Ben, it had always been more about Beatrice.  _Good thing I don’t have to worry about that anymore._  Girls were dumb, anyways.  At the end of the day, what you really need is your best guy friend, the one who doesn't confuse and insult you, the one who has always been there.

Pedro opened the door and frowned. “Hey, Ben, guess what? Something really weird just happened. Like, yesterday, right before Beatrice left. I was going to tell you right away,” Pedro ushered Ben in and flopped on the couch, “but I figured you’d be too busy, with saying bye to Bea and all.”

Ben made a slight shrink at the words. Pedro wasn’t going to spend their whole “the-point-of-this-is-to-be-friends-with-just-guys-from-now-on day” talking about Beatrice, was he? If Pedro noticed though, he took it as an embarrassed rather than an annoyed reaction.

“What do you mean? Also, Pedro, can we go to your games room? You’ve been boasting about that new computer game all summer and I haven’t had a chance to play it yet.” Ben got up and starting walking in the direction of what he thought was Pedro’s personal room for video games and computers and such, but Pedro jumped up and tried to stop him.

“You’re just scared,” he turned to look at Pedro as he opened the door, and ended the sentence a bit too loudly, “that I’m going to kick your ass!” He then walked a step into the room to meet a very sad and scared face.

Ben gave the face an embarrassed look. He spoke very slowly, unsure of what exactly he was supposed to say. “Um, heeelllo. I’m Benedick Hobbes. I’m not quite sure who you are, but I’ll just turn around and close the door then. And we can forget this happened. Um… sorry.” He quickly scuttled away from the room and whispered his confusion to Pedro. He didn’t exactly mean to whisper, but he had the sudden feeling that the random guy could hear everything they were saying, and that everything he was saying was somehow totally insensitive.

“So it seems there is a random guy and a bed in what was your games room? Is this some foreign exchange student? Is he going to hate me forever? Why does he look so sad?”  _So much for getting away from all the confusion._ Pedro grabbed a soccer ball from the closet and pointed to the back door.

“Come outside, I’ll explain.

\-------

"Right, so what I was saying before is that you know how yesterday my dad came home from his business trip? Except it wasn’t a business trip.” Pedro kicked the ball to Ben, who kicked it back, except he was being very Ben and did not kick the ball as much as force it across the yard as if it were a rocket. It hit Pedro in the face, and Pedro wondered, for the umpteenth time, how Ben’s thought processing even worked. This wondering usually manifested itself in the form of an eyeroll.  This time specifically, a slightly bruised and pained eyeroll.

“Jesus, Ben, in what situation would you think that is a good idea? We  _have_ to get on the junior football team, you know that. Can we at least try to practice properly?” Ben made a kind of a laugh and shrugged, and Pedro made a kind of a laugh and rolled his eyes again, and continued his explanation.

“So Dad comes home, hours before Bea is about to leave, with another fucking person,” he may have yelled that last bit a little angrily, he hoped John hadn’t heard, “and this person walks straight to my games room and opens his suitcase and starts crying.”

Ben couldn’t help but feel a little weirded out by the story.  _What, why… where is this going? He just started crying? Has he been crying for twenty-four hours straight?”_ He was very tempted to tell Pedro to get to the point, but decided that he missed Pedro’s terrible story telling (not that it happened very often), just like he missed most thing about him, so he let him continue.

The ball had been kicked into the bushes, and Pedro went to go retrieve it, walking backwards, to face Ben as he talked. “Then Mum and Dad sit me down. This whole formal, family meeting thing.”

He took a kind of a break, as if trying to decide how to word the next part. It didn’t work though, and he ended up cursing very angrily at the sky as he kicked the ball.

“Woah, man, are you ok? Do you need to like, chill and sit for a second or something?” Ben wasn’t very good at dealing with his own emotions, and he was infinitely crap at dealing with that other people. He walked to the deck, sat down on the stairs, and awkwardly patted the spot beside him.

“Can we actually, just _not_ talk about this. Wait, no, you know what? He’s my fucking brother, I’ve got a fucking half-brother I’ve never known about living in my house and just no can we talk about something else. Can we talk about Beatrice?”

 _No, we can not talk about Beatrice!_ “Uh, ya, sure.” Ben tried to process everything and give Pedro the comfort he needed at the same time, which proved more difficult than he thought.  This was absolutely not how he expected this day to go at all.

“Isn’t she just the best? Honestly, you get me, right? She’s just the best.”

\-------

(Pedro hated to admit it, but he felt kind of jealous of his best friend. He knew it had something to with Beatrice, the way they clicked and stayed so close the whole summer. He had seen that before with Ben, though. Ben was always latching onto to new, super close friends. Pedro had been friends with Ben ever since Ben moved to New Zealand years back, and throughout that time he had seen him go through tons of friends, always ending up back at him. It made him kind of happy, if he was being honest with himself, to know that no matter how many newest bestest friends Ben made, he was always the real one that lasted.

Ben had always gone back to his family in England over the holidays, and that’s the time Pedro spent with Bea. Bea really was absolutely fucking amazing, and he would have introduced them to each other sooner if not for the whole never in the same city at the same time thing.

When it finally happened this summer, Pedro totally didn’t expect Bea to become Ben’s newest bestest friend. But she did. The three of them had hung out all summer, kicking the football around at the park and laughing and just generally having a grand old time, and yet Pedro felt bitter. So that’s why, to avoid talking about the whole John situation, he wanted to talk about Beatrice. And see if he could find out what exactly had been going between her and Ben. And maybe find out why it bothered him so much.)

“Ya, I guess, I mean, sure, but, truth be told-” Ben stammered on his words, and Pedro got the sense that he was hiding something. And he was not dealing with anyone hiding things from him anymore.

“Ben? What was going on between you two?”

“Uuuh, listen, Pedro, I’d rather if we didn-”

“Remember in year eight when we took that blood oath, to be sworn brothers?”

“Ya, of course I remember, I have the scar to prove it.” Ben pointed to a little white spot on his hand and they both laughed, remembering the medical and hygienic failures of that event. Pedro didn’t respond, though, so Ben looked up. Pedro was just staring at him, almost glaring, like he was proving a point, or trying to get something across. Oh. Ya. Definitely get something across. Ben sighed. ‘I’ve recited it a thousand times, I don’t need to do it again. I remember, I remember.”

“…” There was no way he was going to choose to piss Pedro off, in his state and in light of _recent discoveries,_ so even though it was the absolute last thing he wanted to talk about, it seemed fate wasn’t letting Ben avoid it.

 “Fine.’

Pedro didn’t look very pleased, it was more like less angry.

“I have no idea what to think about that fucking Beatrice Duke. Do you know how mean she is? She is so mean. So mean.” He paused for dramatic emphasis, flying his hands away from his body, as if ridding himself of something. “She was so mean to me all of a sudden, and I don’t know why. I think maybe she was just being dumb. Girls are dumb. We’ve established that. A lot. I don’t hate her or anything, like I guess she’s cool, most of the time. Just this past week, she was confusing me so much. We didn’t even properly say bye yesterday.”

That definitely not the answer Pedro was expecting. It was as far from what he had observed that he almost thought Ben was lying. Almost. He seemed too genuinely annoyed and confused, though. _Great job, Pedro. Not the best topic of conversation. Probably, fine though. Can’t really have been that big of a deal? Ben is such a drama queen sometimes._

He told Ben what he thought about the situation, him obviously being the one to know Bea better. “I bet she was just upset about going back to Wellington. You’re right, I guess. You know the way girls are.” They shared a laugh, and seeing no better conclusion, accepted it and moved on.

“Uh, Pedro, not to upset you or anything, but I, uh- what do you want to do? Do you wanna continue playing against my supernatural football talent, or eat, or something?” He didn’t say it, but what he meant was, it was do something or talk about the half-brother thing (and we should probably talk about the half-brother thing.) He didn’t say it out loud though, because Pedro just seemed too upset when he spit it out before.

“Right, well, I think I have to go apologize to John for yelling about him with a slew of curse words. That probably wasn’t the best welcoming present.”

\--------

The school year started off fine for them, by any normal measurements. They made the junior football team (not that that was a surprise to anyone), and had started hanging out with this new kid who had moved near the end of the previous year, Balthazar. He was pretty quiet, which was good balance for Ben, and managed to be a good friend without being too in the way. (Ben appreciated this a lot). Everything else was pretty much normal, but the boys could feel how this year was different from all the ones before, a, say, step in their angsty teenage milestones. This was expected for and acted out by everyone around them (who doesn’t look back on year ten with some amount of regret?) so it wasn’t that it was a big worry in their minds, but it was present nonetheless. Relatively a lot had happened over the summer, especially for Pedro with the whole John situation.

 

They hung out a lot, playing video games and practicing football, talking and watching stupid youtube videos, not doing homework and, Pedro’s favourites, truth or dare and kill-shag-marry. Balthazar joined them a lot, but not all the time- he either had totally other friends in the school or spent too much of his time doing his music thing alone. Or with his family. Ben wasn’t very observant (an understatement) and Balthazar wasn’t the most talkative, so it didn’t make for the best combination on that front.

 

 

\---------

 

 

“Hey, Ben? Can we focus on this for maybe four seconds without getting distracted?” They were trying to plan a presentation on the geographical differences of New Zealand’s two islands, except it felt more like a law class (or something of that matter) than a geography class. The teacher had split the class up in half, each team being an “advocate” for an island, and they were going to have a mock debate. Ben and Pedro sat with ten other kids from their class at the back of the room, trying to accomplish the teacher’s more than misguided idea of a twelve person collective working together. Some kids didn’t care at all, most didn’t share the teacher’s hope on the debate actually working, and Ben was being Ben.

 

“Why can’t I make my own team and argue that Great Britain is better than both islands. We all know I’d win. Frankly, not being able to is unfair.”

 

“Ben, godammit, shut UP! Focus. Please. Can you read the part about advantages and disadvantages of population density or whatever?” Pedro hadn’t meant to be the one policing everyone, but it seemed like no one else was going to, so even if he didn’t really want to, he was stuck with it. It seemed to be working, anyway, and he hoped the teacher would notice; that couldn’t _hurt_ his mark.

 

“Excuse me mister Pedro sir, my greatest apologies for the harm I have caused to this Very Important Project.” Pedro could taste the sarcasm. He rolled his eyes and motioned to the aforementioned sheet.

 

“Will you two stop flirting long enough to actually do the project?” This boy who hadn’t had any interest in the project at all seemed to suddenly care _a lot_ about his mark. He snickered and turned to laugh with his friend. Ben got very red and Pedro muttered “fuck off,” just as the teacher passed by.

 

“Donaldson, language!” _There goes my mark._

\---------

The presentation turned out perfectly fine. Pedro presented and debated almost all of their information and everyone thanked him afterward, but he couldn’t help feeling angry about what the kid had said. Ben talked about it with Balthazar at lunch the next day; their Geo teacher had recommended Pedro join debate club, so he was at a new member’s meeting.

 

“Ugh Balthy, can you believe? I was just explaining the wonders of my mother country, not paying attention to much else, really, when, oh you don’t know him, Michael, some rugby player, accuses me of flirting with Pedro? Like I’m fucking gay or something? Imagine having a crush on Pedro. Ew. Why would he even think that?”

 

Balthazar tightened his face for a millisecond but quickly gained his composure and made a slight nod. Ben being, as previously stated, extremely unobservant, and, being someone who liked to rant at people rather than talk with them, was already focused on the next thing he would say.

 

“Obviously you agree it is terrible that was so bad, I can’t believe it Balthazar, I can’t _believe_ it.” Balthazar reacted in pretty much the exact same way as his mother had the night before, which was a variant of “well, you know teenage boys; not very nice, not very surprising.”

 

“I guess Balthy, I guess. You’re lucky this never happens to you, you never say enough to get mocked.” Balthazar made a face, a face even fourteen year old Benedick Hobbes could interpret. “Ya, ok fine. I guess you can get mocked for being shy. Why is it that you’re always right and I’m always ‘Will you please be quiet, Mr. Hobbes?’”

 

“I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself Ben, I’m sure people appreciate you more than you think.”

 

“I think they should appreciate me more. I’m very underappreciated considering my numerous amazing qualities.” Balthazar chuckled and then pointed at the doors to the building.

 

“Look who’s back from his fancy new over-achievers club.” He waved Pedro over and continued talking. “So you think he’s going to join the debate club?” Ben shrugged, and took a bite of his sandwich.

 

“Ijon srik thadll mble…”

 

“ _I_ think someone needs to finish their food.” Pedro walked up to the table, holding few sheets of paper.  Ben hurumphed but shut his mouth.

 

“So are you gonna join debate?” Balthazar pointed at the papers and raised his eyebrows at Pedro. “Because, you know, it’s not going to raise your geography mark.” He started impersonating their guidance counselor. “But, it looks very good on a resume, young man.” Pedro laughed and sat down in between them, just as Ben finished his food.

 

“I’m not sure. It seems to require a lot of arguing, it could be fun?” He paused but didn’t explain how the two parts of the sentence related, and then changed to a less confused tone. “It’s all the student council kids, you know?” He made a non-committal face and took out his lunch. Balthazar turned to Ben.

 

“I would think _you’re_ the one who’d be good at debate. You’re lucky your teacher didn’t hear you gong on about the ‘wonders of your mother country’ or you’d have the same fate as our friend here.”

 

“I’ve thought about it actually, but I decided that it would be unfair to everyone else because I would always win.” The two other boys sighed.

 

“Ya OK, Ben. Oh, Balthy, I forgot to ask, how’s that song going, the one you telling us about last week? What was it about again?  You were pretty excited about it.”

 

Balthazar’s face lit up.“Oh ya, mate, you’re going to love it. Hopefully it’ll be done by the end of the weekend.” Pedro suddenly stood up and hit hid forehead.

 

“I completely forgot but I’m going to visit my mum’s family out East for the weekend tomorrow and I wanted to ask you guys for some help.  You know about the whole,” he lowered his voice, “John thing, but my mum’s family doesn’t, and we’re gonna have to go through the whole thing again. My mum called an official family meeting for tonight on how we are going to ‘ _present it’_ tomorrow _._ I don’t know man, I don’t know about all of this. I don’t know if I can do it.”

 

“It can’t be thatbad, can it? Every time I’ve seen him he seems _fine._ ” Ben put emphasis on the last word, and after Pedro’s following facial expression, slinked back into his chair.

 

“That’s just it: _fine._ He barely leaves his room and he’s always glaring at people. He never does anything to actually complain about, nothing really bad, but it’s just so fucked up, you know? I feel really bad for him, I do, but I can’t help that I have a slight aversion to him.” Balthazar gave him a sympathetic face and tried to think of an appropriate response. He tended to be pretty good at it, Ben called it his best quality. At this particular moment though, he didn’t exactly know what to say.

 

           

\--------

 

 

Pedro walked through his front door and threw his backpack against the wall. “I’m home, sorry it took so long, Ben wanted to show me his new- whoa what is going on here?”

 

“Pedro, just-”

 

He ran angrily into the living room and pointed to the setup. Sitting around the coffee table was his mother, father, half-brother, and two overly-sympathetic looking adults Pedro could only assume were social workers. “I thought you said we wouldn’t do _this_ , you said it would just be a famil-”

 

“Sweety just come sit, I know what I said, but your father and I,” Pedro’s mom stopped to take a quick, sad, glance at her husband, “have decided this would be best. You know I’m worried about tomorrow and it can’t work without us working, you know? We’ve got to work?” She attempted a hopeful smile and motioned for the chair for him to sit.

 

“Why are we doing this now? He’s been here for two months?” At Pedro’s words, John shrunk into his chair.  Their father spoke up.

 

“We… we thought it would be fine, but it’s not working.”

 

“I _knew_ it wouldn’t be OK, this stupid shit won’t make _him_ any happier or bearable and-” His parents gasped.

 

“Pedro, language! It wouldn’t kill you to be a bit more sensitive.” The taller social worker with a too-tight face and nervous finger added on to Anne’s recommendation.

 

“It seems you have some anger towards your brother,” she stopped to make a look of disgust at Pedro muttering the phrase ‘half-brother’ but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “That is exactly what we need to fix.”

 

“No, no screw it, whatever, this is so unfair.” He picked up the phone and punched in Ben’s number, then walked towards his room. “There are _some_ people,” he motioned at the phone, “who get how unfair this is.” He made of a face of disgust, and said something he knew he would regret but he couldn’t help it because he was just angry and annoyed and that didn’t make for the best control. “I wish Ben was my _real_ brother, instead of you.” He then turned around, walked into his room, and closed the door.

 

\--------

 

Pedro’s weekend didn’t exactly go swimmingly, but he really couldn’t care. That was his mum’s problems. Well, his dad’s problem. He just stayed outside with his cousins and ignored all questions about John. He shouldn’t be expected to be an adult about anything. He didn’t hold any responsibility. And that was that.

 

\--------

 

At school on Monday, Pedro could tell that something was up with Ben.  He didn’t make a single jab at Pedro’s hair and didn’t even attempt to argue with their history teacher. And that was just the stuff anyone could notice.

 

“Listen bro, I know something is up. What’s going on?” Pedro asked as they made their way to math. Ben muttered something and looked down. “Ben, come _on_ , what is it?”

 

“I _said,_ I don’t want to tell you because I know you’re upset about the weekend and it kind of has to do with you and I don’t want to upset you more.”

 

“Well now I _have_ to know.” Pedro whined and stole Ben’s textbook. “Tell. Me.”

 

“It has to do with Beatrice.”

 

Jesus. Pedro had nearly forgotten about her, and they were only two months into the school year. This whole John situation had completely messed up so many normal things.

 

“Oh. Ya.  Beatrice Duke.” Pedro remembered their conversation from the day before school. “W-what about her?” They slid into their desks.

 

“I was just doing some typical, casual facebook stalking, and I went to her page through yours, I don’t know why really, in retrospect it was a terrible idea, as we know-”

 

“Ben. The point.” Pedro whispered, then shot his head to smile innocently at the teacher. Before Ben could respond though, their teacher started. Pedro gave Ben the “tell me later” look and they focused on the lesson.

 

\-------

 

That day they had football practice after school. Autumn wasn’t football season, but since the junior team wasn’t actually part of the league and more of a prep team, the coach decided it didn’t matter what season it was; they had practice all year round. Ben and Pedro walked to the field, dreading that day’s practice. They were going to be playing against the senior team to ‘see where all their weaknesses were.’ It seemed to Pedro a perfect way to be embarrassed and not learn anything. The older kids were really intimidating.

 

“Ok, Ben. About one Beatrice Duke’s facebook page. Explain.”

 

“I reaaallly don’t want to. I’m so stupid for bringing it up, can I just call you? It will take too long to explain and we’ve got to start practice.” A far away year thirteen took a few steps towards them, pointed to the field, and yelled.

 

“Hurry up, we’re starting!” Ben made a ‘see what I’m saying do you get my point he said it right there” face.

 

“Fine. Fine, whatever. Call me tonight and explain. I bet tomorrow you’ll just be your Ben self again, anyways.”

           

“You are lucky to know my Ben self, thank you very much. For example, I’m helping you get over your fear of the seniors.”

 

Pedro attempted a scoff. “Pfft, what, noo. I’m not afraid of them.” He lifted his head high and started walking quicker to the team.  Just at that moment, though, one of the boys started laughing at a year eleven who didn’t ‘think fast’ as a ball was thrown to him. Pedro abruptly slowed his pace.

 

“Mhmm, not intimidating at all.” Ben smirked and mimed curling up in a ball.

 

Pedro sighed. “And what was that about helping me get over my fear of the seniors?”

 

Ben responded to this by waving his arms dramatically at the pitch. “Just think, in a few years, this will be us. We’ll be the coolest kids at Messina.” He made terribly uncool ‘cool gun and hair slick’ motion. “Maybe one of us will even be the captain, or even Balthy, if we can convince him to try out next year. You know he’s as good as you are. Not nearly good as me, of course.” Pedro would have rolled his eyes but he was distracted by Ben’s dream of school royalty.  “Running the football team, running the school, in three short years, there will be no one to be intimidated by. We can even laugh at year nines! It _is_ what’s only fair.”

 

“Hahah, yeah, Pedro Donaldson, captain of the football team. I like that.” They had gotten across the field to the team. “I know we are definitely going to loose, Hobbes, but lets beat these guys!” They gave each other fake confident nods and took their places.

 

The game was as embarrassing as expected, but they had terrible fun regardless.

 

\--------

 

Ben sat at the kitchen table, phone in hand, having a mental argument. He knew he’d promised Pedro he’d call and explain. The problem was, it wasn’t even that big of a deal, but he had worked it up so much at school, so he didn’t want it to come off like he was being too over dramatic. Plus, he didn’t really know how to explain it. _Because,_ he thought, _nothing even happened. There isn’t even anything to ‘explain.’_

 

How does one explain to their best mate that they are upset because they don’t know why exactly they are angry at a girl? It sounded too mushy and feelings-y for Ben. And why even tell Pedro? It’s not like he could solve his problem. Ben decided he was just going to lie. He’d never really lied to Pedro before about stuff like that, so it was only a first strike and therefore not a big deal. Plus, he was sure Pedro would rather not hear Ben’s boring confusion.

 

And, as if he needed more signs from above that he should just drop the whole thing, Pedro wasn’t answering his cell phone.

 

“Hey, ya Mr. Donaldson, sorry to call the home phone but Pedro wasn’t answering his cell.” Ben heard angry breathing and then the phone being put down. He could still make out what was being said, though, considering Mr. Donaldson was yelling.

 

“Pedro, this “brother” of yours is breaking the rules, remember? I thought you said you wouldn’t be having anyone calling you?”

 

_Shit. What the fuck Pedro? Now you’re Dad’s going to hate me because you didn’t tell me you were grounded?_

“Sorry Mr. Donaldson, I’m just going to hang up now.  Goodnight.”

 

_What was that all about?_

\-------

Pedro wasn’t having the hottest evening, either.  He had been waiting around all afternoon, slightly nauseous from the dread of what Ben was going to say. He never got to say bye to Beatrice and as far as he knew, the last thing she had done before leaving was make fun of Ben. (He could understand the temptation, but still.)

 

He hoped Ben wouldn’t throw him for any surprises. Ben had made it seem so terrible and embarrassing, and the more Pedro stewed in his worry, the worse it had gotten.

 

Well, that was until he remembered that his dad had taken his phone away as punishment for his ‘behaviour.’ After a dinner of being reminded over and over again that he had no ‘privileges’ (including but not limited any phone, computer, and video games) and that he is not allowed to be getting calls, he decided he’d just pray that Ben would chicken out and not call.

 

He went to start working on his application for debate club. He seemed to be so good at arguing with his parents these days, and if everyone thought it was a good idea, why not? Plus, it couldn’t _hurt_ the vision that Ben had fashioned earlier that day if he got in with the student council kids. He was almost done listing all the previous clubs he’d been in when he heard his dad yelling outside his door.

 

He banged his head repeatedly on his desk and swore louder than he should have. On one tiny baby’s hand, he was impressed that Ben had actually called, as he seemed so unwilling to talk about the subject, and it was getting so late Pedro thought he wouldn’t. But, on a much larger adult man’s hand, he was very pissed off. (At his dad, not Ben). He _tried_ to be more accepting and civil, but excuse him if he wasn’t a fan of John, or a fan of the fact that John never tried at all. Never once in the past two months had he started a conversation with Pedro, done anything remotely social, or interesting, funny, helpful…Pedro could go on.

 

So the fact that he had to deal with a problem that was absolutely not his fault was unfair. He didn’t get why his parents couldn’t see that, and instead _,_ were _punishing_ him. But as there was no way to change his parents mind, he was going to have to actually do something to deal with it, because he couldn’t live in eternal grounding.

 

“Sorry Dad, I really am, in my defense I didn’t know he was going to call and I had no way to tell him not to.” He radiated self-assurance and confidence, the kind you can only get when you know that you’re right.

 

“That sounds reasonable enough, but from now on. No more.” His dad looked very angry, and Pedro was not an idiot- he knew it wasn’t about the phone as much as it was the reason for the punishment.

 

“Sorry again. Just don’t be mad at Ben, though, he had no idea.” He needed to do something to get his dad less angry. “Uh, I was wondering, remember that children’s football league I was in? Do you remember which years that was?” He tried to look as innocent and remorseful as possible. 

 

“Why do you ask?”

 

“I’m filling out this application and I need to list stuff like that.” Pedro seemed to have calmed his dad down a bit, because he responded with actual interest.

 

“What’s the application for?” Pedro didn’t miss a beat in his reply.

 

“Debate.”

 

“Hmm.” His father made a tiny smile and Pedro saw John standing at the other end of the hall, who’s face fell in reaction to their dad’s smile. Pedro thought it was _fine,_ though.  He wouldn’t say anymore mean stuff and he’d do more to get on his dad’s good side. That was the best way for it to work. 

 

\-------

 

The next day at lunch, Pedro was all business. “Ok, Ben, I’m really sorry about last night, I’ll explain later, but can we pleaseget to the great dramatic secret about Beatrice’s facebook page.”

 

Ben took in a big breath, mentally going over the fictitious story for the last time. He had spent all evening repeating it, and after the phone call thing, he had practiced it so much he almost forgot it wasn’t actually the case.

 

“Right, well, on Beatrice’s facebook page, that girl she’s cousins with who was there sometimes in the summer…,”

 

“Hero.”

 

“Ya, that’s the one. Well you obviously know this because you’ve been family friends with the Dukes for ages but she has an older brother, Leo. And I was looking at his facebook page because I _kind_ of remember him from primary school, he’s like, what, six years older than us?” Pedro nodded.

 

Balthazar nodded along, even though he had absolutely no idea who Ben was talking about. Who were the Dukes? From the summer? _They must not like to talk about it, because Ben never stops talking. Wouldn’t he have mentioned it?_ He tried to think of who these people could be, and why they were such a serious topic of conversation. There weren’t any Beatrice’s or Hero’s in their grade that he knew of.

 

“I clicked on his page and he’s really into football. How come I never knew this?

“Ben that is literally the most irrelevant thing you have ever said, nevermind hiding and making a big deal out of it. Ya, you know he plays football because he came up for the summer and was half-playing with us a few days in the park with Beatrice. What the ever-loving fuck is your point?”

 

“That’s not what made me upset, obviously, it was just background information.” Ben was going to continue on with his lie. He had it all mapped out, some bullshit about being scared about university, but right before he was about to continue, his mind switched course. He didn’t pour out all of it, but he didn’t like causing all that fuss and then lying to Pedro. It was a last second switch he didn’t realize he had taken until he had. “What I was _going_ to say, before you so rudely interrupted, is that it reminded me those days playing soccer, and how fun it was.”

 

Pedro looked down for a split second. Balthazar noticed. Ben did not.

 

“And it got me thinking about Beatrice and how I never figured out why she turned so mean, and I kind of got sad.” That wasn’t the whole truth of it, but it was enough to make sense and get the general point across.

 

“Sorry guys, I don’t mean to be ‘that Balthazar new kid,’ but if someone could explain to me what you two happen to be talking about, it’d be greatly appreciated.”

 

Pedro’s eyes widened. “Shit, sorry Balth.” It took Ben a few extra seconds to realize that Balthazar had no idea about any of it. It took the two the rest of the lunch hour to catch their new friend up, each of them leaving out stuff without realizing the other one was as well.

 

\--------

 

It was September, they were over halfway through the school year, and Pedro decided they were going to have a sleepover.  So, on a Friday night, Ben walked home with Pedro, they grabbed a bag of chips and from the pantry, and went to Pedro’s room.

 

Things had pretty much come round with Balthazar, meaning, Ben was falling back to Pedro, and Pedro wasn’t protesting. Plus, Ben’s incapability to keep a friend besides Pedro in no way prevented Pedro from hanging out with Balthazar _without_ Ben.  

But Ben was back in his ‘I’ve missed you you’re my best mate for realz peddy” mood, and Pedro had learned to just go along with it. Hence, the sleepover. Plus, Pedro needed stretching out for his kill-shag-marry muscles, and what better opportunity.

 

“Wait, Pedro, first, we’re watching a movie. We already decided this before, let’s go.” They dropped their stuff against the bed and headed back out to the family room. “We didn’t decide what movie, though, lemme see…” He started to dig through the Donaldson’s DVD collection.      

                       

That’s when they heard the cough, and turned around. They hadn’t even noticed that anyone else was in the room, but there was John, sitting on the couch. The TV was on, but he was reading as well, which, as Pedro promptly made a point of, you can do anywhere.

 

“Huh?” John barely looked up from his book.

 

“I said, we’re using the television, you can read anywhere else, anyways.” Ben had grabbed the chosen movie and put it in the player, and him and Pedro made there way towards to couch.

 

“Listen, John, we’re using the couch.”

 

“Ya, we kinda need it to watch the movie, where as you, don’t.”

 

John breathed a tiny sigh, looked to his feet, and stood up.

 

“What were you watching anyways? Seriously, what was that?” Ben pointed to the TV, but just as John opened his mouth to answer the question, Ben turned back to Pedro and started talking.

 

About an hour into the movie, Ben got up to go get some popcorn, when he noticed John standing at the back of the wall, watching the movie from afar. “Hey, John, did you know that you can come closer and actually watch the movie properly?” Ben smirked and walked into the kitchen. _Seriously, what is with that kid?_

 

 

\-------

At around 11:00, much after the movie and dinner and kill-shag-marry, they were just a little bored. They had tried playing truth or dare but the truth part was kind of lost on them, it never worked when they played; they could never think of questions they didn’t know the answer to.

 

So, they were flopped over Pedro’s bed, trying to separately come up with good dares for the other. Ben was smiling, almost giggling, his way through writing, and Pedro was very concentrated, trying hard to really think of what would be the most memorable dare.

 

“Yes, that’s it, that’s the one!” Pedro shot his fist up in the air. “Ben you are going to hate me, this is brilliant.” Ben glanced over at Pedro’s paper.

 

“No! Absolutely not! I have literally no incentive or reward to do that. Nope.”

 

“Blood oath, you’re my sworn brother, you have to, not to mention that’s the _intrinsic idea of a dare_ , do I need to go on?”

 

Ben did not seem happy. He scrunched up his face. “Fine.”

 

They tiptoed out to go get the jar of olives from the kitchen. There was a small one and a large one, and Pedro insisted with his life that it only counted it if it was the larger jar. “Come one, man, you know how much I hate olives. I can barely look at them!”

 

“I don’t make the rules, Hobbes.”

 

“Uh, yeah, you kinda do.” Ben gave him the “you’re wrong, see how high my eyebrows are, that’s how much you’re bullshitting” look.

 

They turned the corner in the hall and almost bumped into John. He stared in confusion at the large jar of olives.

 

Ben answered John’s unasked question. “We are continuing the eternal process of proving our true brotherhood.” He opened the jar, grabbed a handful of olives and put them in his mouth, right there. He didn’t exactly think it through though, because 1) olives have pits, and 2) he absolutely hated olives. He spat them out _tried_ to aim away from the other humans. “Fuck, sorry about that, I do not really have an impulse filter. Well, that’s what my mom says.” He got closer to John and cupped his hands around his mouth in a mock-whisper. “I think that’s her way of calling me an idiot, though.”

 

Pedro pulled Ben by the sleeve into his room. “Which is also a very correct accusation.”

 

Ben closed the door. “That was pretty funny though.”

 

“Yeah, bro, he looked so surprised. He got that it was an accident though.” Pedro shook his head. “Truly idiotic.”

 

“Hey, it was your idea!”

 

Pedro laughed and pointed to the jar. “It’s barely started, we don’t have all night.”

 

“Did you _see_ what just happened? I need some sort of incentive, unless you want olive vomit all over your floor.”

 

“How would an incentive improve the taste of the olives?”

 

“I’ll be too focused on my beautiful incentive to notice the olives.”

 

“Fine.”

 

Ben thought for a moment. Then it hit him. “The best kind of truth question: tell me one gossipy thing I don’t know about you.”

 

Pedro answered much quicker than Ben thought he would, like he had the thought stored away in a “something Ben doesn’t know” folder.

 

“Well I do, wait- first, you grab a handful and I’ll start talking. You’re not getting out this, I know you!” Ben looked offended, which Pedro found slightly unfair considering 30 seconds before he was refusing to eat the olives entirely.

 

“Ok, here we go, this better be some juicy stuff, Mr. Peter, because let me tell you, I’m not the one that’s going to be cleaning up olive vomit.” Ben grabbed a (second) handful of olives and brought them to his mouth, looking disgusted. “Here we go.”

 

“Something you don’t know about me: I tell you all my crushes and I guess I never told you this one because you used to make fun of me for it when we were little and then now I know you said how you kind of get sad when-”

 

Ben spat out four pits, clearly pleased with him. “Listen, Pedro, I usually don’t mind your walking around the point, which by the way you’ve been doing less and less of this year, so we’re all thankful for that-”

 

“Ok, 1) debate, and 2) you are so much worse than I am when it comes to that don’t even _pretend_ Ben.”

 

“BUT, please get to the point.”

 

“Right so I have a huge crush on Beatrice she’s amazing Ben I don’t know why she was mean to you but like I said it was probably because she was sad to be leaving.” Ben spat out 5 more pits. “I really like her, man. Did you notice? Is it too obvious? Do you think she notices?”

 

“Interesting gossip, I’m over it, I mean my younger self suspected it, there fore I am genius, me being a genius is not new information.” He then added an afterthought. “I think I’m no longer gagging, so that’s good.”

 

Pedro felt how he had brought down the general bro mood. “This is the best dare idea, you are going to be so sick when it’s finished. And not in the cool way, the funny way.”

 

Two more handfuls. “Now I just have to think of something equally torturous for you.”

 

“I’d like to see you try!”

 

“I will!”

 

“Ya right, my idea will go unbeat.” Pedro made a mock fist, imitating the coaches inspiring their teams to be undefeated. “Never will I let down my guard, for victory I shall always have!”

 

“Coach, we will forever be in debt to you for our victory. Go lead us into battle!” Ben struck a battle pose and, in the same moment, starting coughing. “Oh no, shit, I think I’ve swallowed a pit!”

 

Pedro couldn’t control his laughter. “Oh my god, what even was that? Were we a sports team or an army? And you’ll be fine, just let it go down.”

 

“I _knew_ I had a reason to hate olives, they are completely untrustworthy. Look what happens!” But even he was laughing.

 

They continued laughing, Ben still eating the olives (he was about half way through) for a good while. Eventually, Anne came in to tell them to be quiet, but she didn’t seem to put any effort into it, looking more tired than annoyed.

 

“Sorry, we’ll calm. I didn’t realize how late it was.” Pedro started to whisper when his mum left. “My dad’s really come ‘round since the autumn, I do _not_ want to get on his bad side.”

 

They were sprawled on the floor, the olives almost gone. “I’m actually warming up to these. A bit salty, but I think I’ve shocked my body into accepting them.”

 

“I’m not sure that’s how it works.”

 

“Trust me, I bet we could make tons of money off this idea, for like, therapy or something.”

 

“Huh, ok Ben.”

 

“It’s genius, you’re going to regret not being my business partner.”

 

“Clearly.” They chuckled and then Ben gave out a really long burp.

 

“Whoops.”

 

“That was really gross.”

 

“Just me _enjoying_ the olives because of _your_ masterful dare, is all.” There was a silence, and then Ben changed topics abruptly. “I never really commented on that Beatrice thing, I got a little distracted, but, I’m just putting it out there that I guess that makes sense but you _have_ to remember that girls are dumb. And to stay single forever. And that we’re gonna be bachelors for life together.”

 

“Sure, Ben, I guess that’s easy enough seeing as she lives in Wellington.” Pedro kind of shrugged off the request, knowing that Ben always asked outrageous things he was never serious about.

 

“I’m keeping my eye on you in the summer, though.”

 

“Doesn’t she, what was the word you used, make you _sad_ or something?”

 

Ben stuck to his point. “I mean, it’s not that big of a deal.  I’ve resigned myself to eternal bachelorhood, how many times do I have to re-state, girls are dumb, and it’s not _really_ anything that “upsetting” in the first place. More confusing but nonetheless, never mind. I just hope your little crush on her goes away soon.”

 

Pedro responded in an even quieter whisper. “Ya. Hopefully. We won’t see her again for a few months, so it not like it matters now.”

 

“You know, that was a pretty boring gossip. Do you have more interesting gossip?”

 

“Well it’s not really gossip, but I was stayed behind in History yesterday after school, and I was helping with marking the tests.”

 

“What, were you _gossiping_ with Mr. Edwards? Jeez, Pedro, you really need some friends.”   

                       

Pedro smacked Ben’s shoulder. “No, I was marking the tests and I saw everyone’s marks, I actually entered them into the computer! I know technically students aren’t supposed to but he trusts me enough. Most teachers do.” He added the last bit as an afterthought.

 

“That’s your idea of gossip? Aren’t you buddy buddy with what’s his face, wasn’t there that whole thing with his girlfriend and her friend and basically any Messina gossip? No? Grades. I can’t believe I’ve befriended a goody goody.”

 

“ ‘Befriended,’ as if you’ve just met me.” Pedro followed with a yawn, which prompted their heads to the clocks. “Woah, bro, it’s 1:30. What was I saying…the marks! So I saw everyone’s marks as I was entering, not just the test but all the other ones too beside their name, and I saw something really weird. Balth’s marks were super high, he’s such a genius! _But,_ that one assignment we did together, where we were filling out the worksheets and copying off each other and stuff, he totally failed it.”

 

Ben had been setting up the sleeping bags and moving all their crap off the floor, but stopped mid pillow-fluff. “But that was the easiest assignment of the year!”     

           

“I know, right! Wait shh..”

 

“Is someone awake?”

 

“No, I just don’t want to wake my parents up.”

 

“OK, sure.” Ben was lying in his sleeping bag, but he sat up to grab a handful of chocolate from the night table. “That’s weird about Balth, but I don’t know, probably nothing to read into.”

 

“That’s like, your number one motto. It’s basically your advice for everything. I don’t think anyone listens to it anymore.”

 

“But I’m being _really_ serious this time.”

 

“Well, I just thought it was weird. That’s all.”

 

 “What a terribly boring and pathetic version of gossip.”

           

“Goodnight Ben.”

 

“Don’t shut me up like that! Listen, Pedro, it ain’t over till I say it’s over.”

 

“Pedro?”

 

"..."

 

“Pedro?”

 

“Wow, you fall asleep fast,” Ben muttered under his breath.

 

“Just kidding!”

 

“Oh, fuck off.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
